five days before christmas...

after lunch today, andrew dragged me with him to some stupid novelty store in shadyside. he's in search of an anti-george bush t-shirt that he can wear at his family's christmas dinner. this was one of those stores with lots of overpriced greeting cards and stupid little schtick-y type things, and the whole place was very cramped with display cases and shoppers. and there i was, already feeling mobility-impaired because of multiple layers of bundled up-ness, but all the worse off because i had a full cup of coffee in one hand and my giant bag filled with my computer and about an eight-inch stack of research that i think is somehow going to morph on its own into my completed seminar paper. oy.

there we are, walking into this store. i'm complaining already, because i need to be working, and andrew's telling me to suck it up. and then we walk by a bunch of books and we both stop and here's what happens:

andrew: oh my god! look at this! eighty years of the new yorker! and it's got a DVD!
emily: A STAR WARS COOKBOOK!!!

two friends. similar paths. totally different worlds.

and because i'm (a) crazy (blogger), i had to write down some of the names of the recipes in the star wars cookbook so that i could include them in this post. here were my favorites:

hoth chocolate
tusken raider taters
obi-wan kebabs
greedo's burritos
boba fett-uccine
wookiee cookies

and as if the whole experience wasn't good enough, as we were leaving, there was this tiny old white-haired lady standing at the door. just standing. at the door. or more like in the doorway. standing there. i said, "excuse me", and she responded with, "oh, go ahead on by. i'm just waiting for my ride." and then she continued standing there. in the doorway. so i kinda had to squeeze by her, hoping to hell that i didn't knock her out with my stupid bag o' research... man, do i love the holidays!